Testimonials

Esteem’s presentations have been among the most well-received we have sponsored in our firm. Esteem has offered both Self-Reliance, Self-Protection seminars and Sexual Harassment Prevention Seminars for all of our offices in California as well as Chicago, Illinois. Our attorneys, associates, and staff look forward to The Esteem staff’s biannual return to our offices, greeting them with references to previous seminars. Esteem’s approach to sexual harassment prevention is refreshingly upbeat and engaging, empowering individuals to assert themselves and set appropriate boundaries. I would strongly recommend Esteem to other companies interested in educating their employees in the important arenas of harassment prevention and personal safety.

Over my 30 years in the behavioral health field, I have attended almost that many Diversity Trainings. Yes, the name of the training has changed over the years but the overall messages have been consistent and helpful as I developed as a team member, manager and leader.

So it was with curiosity and guarded expectation that I attended a recent Inclusivity and Diversity Training with Esteem. As I watched the trainer engage everyone in the room, including the team member in the back corner playing on his phone, it was great to see the transformation of the managers attending the training. They started to listen as the material was not bullets on a power point but was the trainer’s life experiences. With the small group exercises where we practiced what we would do as managers, we all learned more about ourselves and each other.

The results were stellar. We all were reminded of our humanness and the complexity of the human condition. The material was not new to most of us but how we used the material was different and fun. Often managers want to train their team members in staff meetings or on the job. What was remarkable about this training was the request of the managers to have all staff trained by Esteem.

Thanks much for creating and delivering a training that captured how easily we can become biased and more importantly, how we can recognize such, and manage to the strengths of all our team members.

Senior Vice President and Executive Director, California, Phoenix House

I serve on a college sub-committee that discusses the issues, dynamics, and complexity of sexual assaults on our campus. The discussions, and most of the actions taken, fall into two large categories: “Prevention and Education” on one side, and “Care and Support” on the other side. I saw the documentary Beauty Bites Beast many months ago. The movie illustrates, among other things, that the single one thing that has been shown to be efficacious in preventing sexual assault is self-defense, teaching women and girls to fight back. I have been coaching college softball for 17 years. I have coached several sexual assault survivors. I wanted to offer every chance for empowerment, confidence, and sexual assault prevention that I could to the young women on my team. Engaging them in a self-defense course represented something far more important than improving their softball skills or seeking to win more softball games.

They were deeply moved by the training. Several of them have been distinctly more outspoken, more comfortable in their own skin, and more confident since the course. I believe the most powerful change lies deep within each of them. Just as the course often uncovers deeply rooted fears we carry with us as girls and women, I believe the shifts in consciousness, self-confidence, empowerment, and self-reliance reside at the heart and soul level. That said, I also detect subtle transformations in the carriage, gait, posture, and eye contact of many of them. I think the course validated them as girls, as women, as powerful human beings with a right to their bodily autonomy. I believe for many of them the course offered them a comfort with and a platform to be uncompromising, to fight off an aggressor, and to tenaciously stick up for themselves. Girls and women are rarely afforded such an opportunity.

There is no doubt in my mind that this self-defense course will be the most important two days of the 2016-2017 softball season. It may well be the most important and valuable two days of the entire year or their entire college careers. I know the verbal, physical, and observational skills they learned in the course and their enhanced self-awareness will serve them well for their entire lifetimes.

In my twenty years as an administrator of various women’s programs I have hosted and attended dozens of self defense trainings. The self defense workshop conducted by Esteem’s Lauren Hines Roselle is by far and away the best. It is truly a comprehensive training. By the end of the fourth hour of the training for beginners participants really feel like they can take care of themselves in any situation. The feedback from students, staff, and faculty has been exceedingly positive and I am frequently asked to bring this training back so that folks can enroll their mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. In fact, I bring Esteem back to campus every quarter so that as many women as possible can experience this effective training. I cannot say enough about this training. I firmly believe that it is one of the most important things that we offer every quarter.

We have welcomed the Esteem Program for many years at the Willows. Lauren and her team continually provide extremely valuable insight for both our male and female students. Esteem gives our 8th graders an opportunity to learn about self-defense and self-Esteem in a safe and nurturing environment. Our students complete this program feeling confident, communicative, and well equipped with the tools of conflict resolution and self-protection as they leave our middle school and enter high school.

The entire Caltech community has been fortunate to have access to Lauren Roselle’s expertise and training. She is fabulous with students, staff, scholars, and postdocs–women and men alike. Lauren’s energy and enthusiasm for empowering women to take control of their safety, tap into their strength, and find their inner voice is contagious.

I’ve always been concerned about my daughters’ safety, but could not find a way to discuss this important issue; I was afraid to bring up issues they were not ready to talk about, such as molestation, and I didn’t want to scare them. One daughter would say that I was worrying about nothing, and the other would seem to get fearful and anxious after we talked. A Kid’s Best Defense, offered by Esteem, was a great answer to this problem. The instructor introduced the material in an engaging, age appropriate way while empowering the kids to feel confident about their ability to handle such situations. As a mother, I worry, and sometimes my worrying is accidentally communicated to my kids. This program provided a great foundation for later important conversations.

Esteem has given assemblies for our students (K – 8) for the past several years. They have also given a parent talk on protecting children and for the past six years have provided a week-long self-defense course for our 8th grade students. Because it is so popular, we have Esteem return every year for the 8th graders. Our students enjoy this program immensely. The instructors communicate well with children of all ages and teach concepts that are easy to grasp and remember. We repeat the Esteem’s assembly programs every two years, and the children cheer when they hear they are back. They remember the techniques from prior years and enjoy interacting with the instructors. The program is not at all scary for the children. It is empowering and confidence building.

I have been an instructor of the Sophomore Human Development course for over 10 years and Esteem's self defense portion is by far, and without a doubt, the highlight for our students. Year after year their evaluations describe the Self Defense classes as “my favorite part of Human Development”; “ empowering and fun at the same time”; and “life changing." Students say that Esteem's programs “teach you to get out of uncomfortable situations” and “really gave me confidence." Most importantly, I know that when I get evaluations that say, "I’m no longer afraid to walk down the streets at night by myself," I realize that even the most interested and caring school administrators don't always know which of their students harbor these anxieties or who needs a boost in self-confidence, and I'm thankful that the Esteem team has a way of engaging and communicating with our youth and helping them find their voices.

I have worked with Lauren Roselle and the Esteem Team for over six years at two very different schools. They have always been extremely effective and students connect to them instantly. Since a lot of what I do is bring in speakers and people to train with students and faculty, I get a chance to see a lot of different organizations and the Esteem Team is my go-to group, they are flawless. They are flexible and really cater a program to your specific organizational needs. Most recently they came to do a program on healthy bodies and though we've approached this subject in many ways, their presentation and workshop allowed our students to have the tools they needed to talk to their peers about some very difficult subjects, including eating disorders. Peer-to-peer interactions are so important to teenagers and often life saving when they have the tools. The Esteem Team gave our students the tools to help their friends, and also the words to define what is going on in the often confusing world of adolescence. Most importantly they were able to help students see when behaviors have crossed that line to being problematic or damaging and when and how to involve an adult. Being able to connect with students in Middle and High School is a skill that eludes many adults, but not this group. They are able to be equally effective with young men as well as young women. Every time the Esteem Team comes to do a program, they are of great help and the students are riveted. They specific tools and action items and open up different avenues of communication. Students respond enthusiastically during and after their programs and feel heard and respected. I will bring them back again and again and again so that students are able to learn skills that they will carry from school, through college and into their workplaces as adults. I cannot think of a more effective group of people to tackle some very difficult conversations and create stimulating conversations that carry on long after they leave.

The Esteem training has been a hit with our middle school students, and parents are so pleased we offer this as part of our curriculum. Whether it's learning basic self-defense techniques or being more conscious about how and what they communicate, students are enthusiastic about each session. What they're learning spills over into their conversations with one another and their teachers. We feel great about providing this experience for our students.

I have known Lauren Roselle for many years. She is a gifted teacher and practitioner. Her expertise in helping women build internal strengths by learning ways to self-defend are extraordinary. As a trauma therapist, I have worked with Lauren with clients to gently guide the survivor of sexual trauma to develop skills that add to their ability to protect and care for themselves. She has my highest recommendation.

I recommend Esteem for being very responsive to the particular needs of a school community in planning and making presentations on building positive relationships in the school setting. Esteem Communications was great for students, teachers, and parents!

Lauren is a dynamic speaker and does a great job of providing engaging training topics with much enthusiasm. You can be assured to have an enjoyable and enriching learning experience every time.

Our sixth grade Girl Scouts and their moms LOVED the introductory mother-daughter self-defense class. Lauren helped the girls learn to handle uncomfortable scenarios with security and comfort and helped the mothers feel at ease about their daughters’ safety. Thanks to this wonderful Esteem training, we all feel more secure in our ability to protect ourselves. The class material was pertinent to the culture the girls are growing up in, yet it was relevant to the mothers’ experiences and concerns as well. Thank you for helping us cultivate the ability to protect ourselves and for making the training so engaging and fun for the girls!

Lauren took the serious topic of self-defense and potential serious situations these girls could encounter and turned it into a fun, meaningful experience that built their skills and confidence. Parents always have to balance the decision between overexposing kids to the realities of our world vs. wanting to teach them skills to protect themselves, and I think Lauren held that balance beautifully. Through her stories of past students and validation of every nervous kind of response a student of hers could have, she put the kids at ease and helped them envision how they might use what she taught them to actually protect themselves. She gave them the permission they needed to act in a way that they are not accustomed to, and she never crossed a boundary that made me as a parent the least bit uncomfortable. In addition, we moms were included and learned a lot ourselves! And finally, her padded attacker, though ominous looking in his padding, was a most gentle and skilled instructor that helped the girls focus their moves and find their inner power.